Currently, email clients such as MICROSOFT OUTLOOK and LOTUS NOTES enable a user to exchange electronic messages with other users through networked email servers. If a user wants to respond to a message, the user activates a “reply” command. In general, an email client responds to a “reply” command by creating a new message with the same subject line. Frequently the reply email contains the original message in addition to the reply text. Often, the original message is not deleted and many email clients copy the content of the original message into the reply message.
Copying the content of the original message into the reply message causes multiple copies of the original message to be stored on the email server and on the client's computer. The parties may engage in an exchange based on the original email. Each new reply may contain the text of all the previous emails. As the prior emails may not be deleted, this results in wasted disk space on the client, the server, or both.
The burden on storage systems may be further increased when both the sender and receiver keep records of an email locally as well as on the email server. Records may be kept locally for future reference. In addition, records retention may be mandated by law. Thus after several rounds of email conversation, both the sender and the receiver cause numerous duplicate emails to be in the memory of their local computers and of their email servers. One way to control the build up of message content in memory involves deleting messages after a pre-established expiration date passes. However, expiration dates may not meet the needs of the users, and may not be appropriate in industries having specified legal requirements.
Referring to FIG. 1, a prior art messaging system is represented by display 100 for a messaging program having a utility area 180 and a message text area 190. Message area 190 is shown with five messages between Dan and John that will be used to illustrate the problem of duplicate content storage. In sequence, first message 130 is the original message from Dan to John, second message 140 is John's reply to Dan, third message 150 is Dan's reply to John, fourth message 160 is John's reply to Dan, and fifth message 170 is Dan's reply to John. When fifth message 170 is sent, there will have been five separate message transmissions. The cumulative content can be seen by reference to FIG. 1A. For purposes of illustration, each message is set to have the same size of 10 Kb. Therefore, when first message 130 was originally sent, 10 Kb was stored. When second message 140 was sent in reply it carried first message 130 with it so that 20 Kb were stored. When third message 150 was sent it carried first message 130 and second message 140 with it so that 30 Kb were stored. When fourth message 160 was sent, it carried first message 130, second message 140, and third message 150 with it so that 40 Kb were stored. Finally, when fifth message 170 was sent, it will carry first message 130, second message 140, third message 150, and fourth message 160 along with it so that 50 Kb was stored. After the exchange of five messages a total of 150 Kb was stored. If there were multiple message recipients, then the storage figures would have been further multiplied.
An analysis of FIG. 1B shows that 100 Kb of the total kilobytes stored is due to storage of duplicate content. First message 130 is an original message, and therefore has no duplicate content in storage. When second message 140 is sent, the copy of first message 130 that is carried along is duplicate content of the original message. Therefore, 10 Kb of duplicate content is stored. The process of adding prior messages to each new reply message results in an accumulation of duplicate content. As shown in FIG. 1C, 100 Kb of duplicate content is stored after the fifth message has been sent. In the example, the storage of duplicate content is twice the amount of the original messages. Therefore, a need exists to reduce or eliminate storage of such duplicate content, and thereby save significant electronic storage space.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,704,772 discloses a method and system for reducing the amount oi storage space required when sending an email to multiple recipients. The method of the '772 patent reduces storage space by removing the body of the original email message and storing the body on a server. Each recipient of the email receives a link to the single message stored on the server. The link consists of a unique identification number matching that assigned to the body of the message as stored on the server. The '772 patent addresses storage of the body text of a single message sent to multiple recipients with a link to the message so that each recipient will be able to access one stored copy of the message. In like manner, a recipient of notification of a message, or a reply message, can use the message identifier number to access the message and all reply messages associated with the original message.
What is needed beyond the prior art is a method to eliminate storage of duplicate content while permitting selective access to individual reply messages in a thread of communication between an originator and a receiver of an original message text.